Wisdom?

26052006

Wisdom?Scripture:1 Kings 11:9-11, 39 (NIV) 9 The LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. 10 Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the LORD’s command. 11 So the LORD said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates.39 I will humble David’s descendants because of this, but not forever.Romans 6:19-23 (NIV) 19I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[b] Christ Jesus our Lord.Proverbs 2:12-17 (NIV) 12 Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, 13 who leave the straight paths to walk in dark ways, 14 who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, 15 whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways. 16 It will save you also from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive words, 17 who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God.Observations:Time and again, God gave instruction to the Israelites and time and again, they strayed. The story of Solomon is tragic. Solomon, in a conversation with the Lord, did not ask for riches and power. No, he simply asked for wisdom. And in that, God saw great potential and decided to give Solomon all of the above. But unfortunately, Solomon let the flattery and power go to his head and he turned away from God.Multiple wives, concubines, and the life of luxury and flattery – all of this brought Solomon down and God took it all away from him.Paul states it well, we must no longer be slaves to sin, but we must be slaves to righteousness. But the question is, how do we do this? I know how to be a slave to sin – it comes naturally. I’ve always been a slave to sin. My eyes, my mind, my hands, and my heart all lead me to disobey God.It is interesting that Solomon, in the book of Proverbs, says that Wisdom will protect us – but he still failed.Application:I don’t need to see better things, I don’t need to think better thoughts, I don’t need to avoid doing bad things, or suppress my heart – NO! I need a new heart. I need clean hands. I need a cleansed mind. And I need a new way of seeing. I need clean hands and a pure heart – I can only get these from God.Surrendering to His ways is my only hope.Prayer:Father God, it isn’t the things I do that cause me to be impure. It is my heart. Take my heart, restore me Lord. gw